While being on the road Maren will conduct 8 interviews with experts on urbanization for the book he is writing about ‘Perspectives on a Globalizing World’. In Almaty I interviewed Mr. Sakenov from the Almaty Development Centre (ADC) about the development and financing of public works in Almaty. This includes, among others, the development of the light-rail system, construction of satellite towns and the main highway.
Almaty is the largest city and former capital of Kazakhstan with 2 million people and is upgrading its public transportation system to relieve the city from traffic congestion, smog and providing people different modes of transport than the car.
I had a very interesting conversation about the light-rail system and the integration with other forms of transport. Having walked around in the city for a couple of days, the scale and amount of projects that are being undertaken in this city are mind blowing.
